Manchester City to be Fined £50million By UEFA For Breaching Financial Fair Play Rules

Manchester City are set to be fined £50million, as well as having their UEFA Champions League squad restricted to 21 players, as a result of breaching the Financial Fair Play rules, according to sources.

City are reported to be ready to appeal the sanctions, which means the case will be presented to panel whose non-negotiable decision will be final.

If City’s appeal fails, the club will have to pay the £50million fine over three seasons.

The full confirmation of the fine and conditions imposed against City are expected to be officially announced this week or next week.

Meanwhile, French newspaper L’Equipe is reporting that Paris Saint-Germain will face even stiffer penalties than City, which will impact PSG’s wage bill and transfers in addition to a fine and squad size restriction.

It’s the squad-size restriction that is going to damage City the most. The reduction of the squad size from 25 to 21 means the club will have to cope with a smaller squad size, which also needs to include 8 locally-trained players.

What’s your opinion about the potential fine and squad reduction for City? Do you have the fine is harsh enough or not, and how will the squad size reduce the team’s Champions League chances in your opinion? Share your opinion in the comments section below.

About The Author

Publisher of World Soccer Talk, Christopher Harris founded the site in 2005. He has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Guardian and several other publications. Plus he has made appearances on NPR, BBC World, CBC, BBC Five Live, talkSPORT and beIN SPORT.
Harris, who was born and raised in Wales, has lived in Florida since 1984, and supported Swansea City since 1979. Last but not least, he got engaged during half-time of a MLS game.

11 Comments

David GMay 6, 2014

So this FFP thing was mostly a way for UEFA officials to get some cash in their pockets. Sounds about right

Both clubs knew the rules and intentionally broke them so they both have themselves to blame.
Chelsea curbed their own spending in the summer and sold Mata and Kevin De Bruyne for big fees in regards to FFP so they wouldn’t have to go through this today.
City have made record losses the last 3 years does that sound like good practice to you?
86% of Citys revenue goes towards paying wages. (I got that from the guardian Article on the finances of the clubs in the Prem).
They spent almost 90 million pounds in the summer knowing the potential penalties looming and they still did it.
FFP benefits all clubs in my opinion. You spend what you make and keepyour club in good financial status. Most of the clubs in Spain are heavily in debt and numerous clubs in the premier league need to stay in the League in order to afford the wages that they are paying. The only league that is in great shape asa whole is the Bundesliga where almost all the clubs are in sound financial position like Arsenal.
This rule is trying to help teams stay organic and grow the right like Borrusia Dortmund.
It’s trying to stop financial insolvency and make sure we never have a Portsmouth or Rangers situation.
Real, Barcelona, and my own club Manchester United are all heavily in debt. Bayern is probably the only top Big club with perfect finances. In fact they probably are the best run club in football on and off the pitch which is no surprise they’re people are the ones pushing for the rule heavily.
Back to Real Madrid. They could incur a fine if they continue at this rate. They’re spending is only bested by city’s since 2009 and when you compare the revenue generated by both clubs in no world should City be spending (off the top of my head) 300,000,000 more than Real Madrid who have spent 600,000,000 since 2009 but they are the richest and biggest club in football with the most marketable players as a whole on the team. It’s apart of their business strategy that all their players are referred to as super stars and galacticos. It’s sells a helluva lot of shirts but when we compare them to City how many people buy CR7, Bale, Benzema etc Jersies to Kun, Yaya, and Silva Jersies? It’s probably proportional to Real Madrid.
City are also the highest paying Sports club which is frankly ridiculous. They beat out the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, United, The Yankees and other American sports teams yet they make nowhere near the amount of revenue as those other teams and don’t have that strength in Brand to sell shirts or attract massive sponsorship deals.
The rule in my own personal opinion helps the Tottenham’s, and Everton’s of he world. They can’t compete with City or PSG financially but United Barca Real and Bayern can. It helps them fight for that say 3rd or 4th spot on even footing so that they can once again kick on from there so that one day they can be in that Top 4 of the Deloitte Money table and regarded as a Big Club (Not disrespecting either club but I mean in terms international recognition and the strength of the brand name).
If City spent with in their means supplemented by the odd 30-50 million by their owner’s then there would be no problem but you can’t have a club spending such amounts every summer and the club itself can’t afford it.
This would just slow down City and PSG forcing them not to make record fees and sign players on such high contracts. It’s just unstable for a club to be run like that.
PSG is in far worse condition than City I’d say. They are in an uncompetitive league and don’t have the benefit of the Premier League TV revenue. They don’t even have something as ambitious as the Etihad Campus to back their claims.
City should just accept the fine and punishments and not make the same mistake next time.
But what were the City Lawyers and Execs doing is what I’d ask if I were a City fan. They w ere warned same as PSG yet still broke the rules. No That’s just plain stupid.

They”ve spent almost double what Chelsea have under Roman and City got their owner’s in 2009 and Roman toolover Chelsea in 2004. In 5 years they have spent double what Chelsea have all under Roman.
I don’t know about that EU law stuff but from my own personal opinion like I stated above itsnot right to have them spending such ridiculous amounts of money.
Bayern and Barca feel aggrieved in that they worked hard to get where they are while others have not.
I think what they believe is that a club shouldn’t need massive investment to become great but work on the youth teams as Bayern and especially Barca have done to get the Champions League/European Cups and many league titles they have won.
I think it brings more parity in the game financially because unless you get guys like RVP or Isco (Rvp chose United over City and Isco the same but for Real Madrid.) no player will join your team over City or PSG.
They can easily throw 250K a week at a guy yet the club itself can’t sustain such heavy transfer methods.
The crux of all this is that it’s just not fair thatCity can spend 100 million every summer and never feel the financial sting but if any other club were to do that they’d end up as a QPR or a Portsmouth.
Spurs, Dortmund, and supporters of teams in that second tier right below the top will be happy about this most likely.
It’s not like United and Arsenal would dominate if there was no Chelsea or City (Fair play to Chelsea curbing their spending and respecting the rules).
Spurs, Everton, Villa, and recently Newcastle would most likely have taken those Champions league spots and kicked on from there with the Champions league money.

Sounds about right to me. All clubs knew about the FFP rules. To be honest I thought it was going to a lot less than a 50m fine. They probably knew it was coming which was why they didn’t bring in the two lads from Porto in Jan.

I didn’t mean to offend City or the club or try to disrespect the club in any way Fly.
But yeah it’s Hypocrisy from UEFA.
They should slap the Glazers with a fine and threaten to take the club from them or something drastic like that.
Didn’t UEFA fine City for coming onto thepitch late a few years ago against Porto more than they did Porto for racist chants against Toure.